Abstract (EN):
We use an extensive dataset on occupational wages to measure the manufacturing skill premium and
evaluate the importance of the main drivers in literature plus the effects of natural resources and
institutions. Results, regarding a panel of 21 countries between 1987 and 2003, suggest the
manufacturing skill premium of technologically advanced countries: (i) increases with tertiary
enrolment, net FDI and the quality of governing institutions; (ii) decreases with the centralization of
wage negotiations and the use of unskilled workers by geographically-diffuse natural resource reexportation
activities. In less advanced countries, the skill premium: (iii) augments with net FDI, scale
effects, the centralization of wage negotiations, and scarcity of skilled workers absorbed by
concentrated resource activities; (iv) decreases with trade, the use of unskilled workers by diffuse
resource exploration, and the emergence of national low-end technological industrial sectors paying
less for skilled labor than more advanced and predominant foreign-led industrial sectors.
Language:
English
Type (Professor's evaluation):
Scientific
Notes:
Disponível em http://cefup.fep.up.pt/uploads/WorkingPapers/2013_03_wp.pdf